The availability of affordable cameras, low cost computer systems, image processing technology, and the internet has resulted in widespread deployment of surveillance systems for security and monitoring purposes. These surveillance systems are extremely effective when deployed along the perimeter of properties, in which there is most likely access ways such as roads, paths, and sidewalks to and from the property, and adjacent to the property. Even though they may be deployed in this fashion, surveillance systems are typically deployed as a capital investment and cost overhead and not utilized as a source of valuable data or as a revenue stream.
At the same time, affordable cameras, low cost computers systems, image processing technology, and the internet has resulted in a large deployment of vehicle identification imaging technologies such as ANPR (Automated Number Plate Recognition) and LPR (License Plate Recognition). License plate recognition systems have been typically deployed by municipalities and government for tolls, vehicle registration, and law enforcement. The private sector has primarily used ANPR for vehicle parking and security purposes.
Affordable cameras, low cost computers systems, image processing technology and computer networks have also resulted in deployments of recognition systems which can track the movement of humans and even identify persons based on their visual characteristics. Municipalities comprised of urban centers with large amounts of foot traffic have typically deployed these for pedestrian traffic studies for urban planning. Government buildings and high security checkpoints such as airports and customs have deployed human recognition systems for counter terrorism and law enforcement.
All these surveillance systems: security, ANPR, human recognition, and other applications are typically deployed as separate, dedicated systems. They fall short in their ability to be leveraged easily for other purposes. The most prevalent in the private and public sector being deployment of security surveillance systems which are typically deployed as a capital expenditure, which means they are an operating overhead, perhaps even demanding fee based maintenance and subscription. Prior art lacks the ability to easily leverage these systems deployed for private, residential, or commercial surveillance as traffic profiling systems.